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On New Year’s I had a lovely couple from the UK stay in my STR. They had to get a COVID test before going back home. I’m now getting these bills from the hospital.
It’s against my house rule to use the STR as an address for mailing. The only thing allowed to be delivered is food.
So of course I’ll contact the hospital to deal with this bills and I even have their home address (required by my rules) but I doubt they will pay. I can"t see how I can be held liable.
But I’m wondering if there is anything that Airbnb would do about this. It’s been 1 1/2 month since they stayed.
Is this just one of those things we have to deal with as hosts?
Are you in U.S.? Just put a note on the envelope “Not at this address.” and put it out for your letter carrier. You are not required to do nor are being compensated for doing any additional work on behalf of these guests.
Maybe they are test results or quality surveys and not bills. Not your problem. Do not open the envelopes.
If you are so inclined, simply message the guests on Airbnb that you received mail from such and such organization, address, addressed to them, and it has been returned to sender, in case they wish to contact the organization. Add your reminder that is it against house rules to use your STR as a domestic mailing address.
To give your guests the benefit of the doubt, the test center may have required a U.S. address.
Did it come in the mail to their names? If it’s in their name then it’s not your problem. Return to sender it, not at this address, etc.
But if you’ve already opened it, you might should just toss it since you’re not supposed to open mail in someone else’s name (even if it’s to your address)
Technically a felony to discard or otherwise destroy someone else’s mail. Just tape it shut (as you accidentally opened it when you were zipping through the pile of mail with your letter opener), and return.
I had a similar issue this summer. A couple of weeks after guest had left I started to get mail for them - looked like phone bills and government documents. I messaged them and (foolishly) offered to forward it. They gave me a new address and I (somewhat irritated) sent it off. Well then I started to get messages: we haven’t received it, are you sure you sent it? What day did you send it? They are very important documents. Did you send it by registered mail? (um no).
I had been getting piles of medical correspondence for someone who was not me, and dutifully returning them.
I eventually looked up the name, and found they had a similar address to mine in a different zip code. Being a nice person like Lynick, I put the next batch in big envelope and mailed it to them with a note to correct their address with the sender (and with extra postage due to the weight!).
The misdirected mail continued. I found a phone number for the addressee, and called them.
“Oh, yes, I got the envelope from you.”
“Did you contact the sender?”
“Oh, no, I just paid the bills.”
(Thought bubble: “No problem. I love being your uncompensated third party mail handler.”)
Actual statement: “You might want to take care of that.”
The misdirected mail continues, and I’ve returned to sending it back.
We have a 3-family house and have only had it for about 4 years. There have been countless tenants moving in and out of it for more than a hundred years so we get a ton of mail for people that are either long gone or that we never even knew. We put a little bag next to the mail slot and toss it all in there and then set it out every once in a while for the post-guy. He takes the whole bag. But I don’t want to weigh him down so I’ll admit we throw out (recycle) the items that are not “real mail”, like coupons for pizza and alumni magazines.
I get tons of misdirected mail or stuff for prior tenants, but I have yet to get any Airbnb guest mail. I was amused to get a large envelope addressed to my mother (dead since 2005 who never lived here) and my dog on the same piece of mail just this month. Both are chuckling in heaven, no doubt.
Best you can do is send it back to sender and on the outside of the envelope, write in HUGE words “DON’T KNOW THIS PERSON” and the billing dept can skip trace the person and find out they have never lived at your house. I’m not sure what the laws are from state to state and country to country but please make sure your property can’t be liened in any way.
Curiously, the only medical bills I got for one of our guests was also someone from the UK. Perhaps there they don’t need insurance, so once the address is entered they figure they are golden. They did not have access to the mailbox, and the bills came long after they were gone.
We try to discourage those staying less than two month to use the mailbox. Lost mailbox keys are a pain to replace, you need to go through the US Postal service and they don’t make it easy. And those few that really, really wanted to forward their mail here, and then home again when they left were probably disappointed to find that much of it got lost or delayed. Some of their mail I’d get six months later.
It’s against my house rules to use my address for mail so I feel no obligation to sent them their mail. I am going to do as suggested and put in my own mailbox with a return to sender, no such person lives here.
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